This is my first post. I don't know where to post this. I hope I will get some good advice.
I want to archive my Vinyl, normal CDs 44.1Khz/16bit and some other CDs with 96/192 and 20/24 high resolutions.
In order to preserve the quality of the content, which audio format should I use for conversion? I intend to get 1TB storage drive. Any suggestion on software that will all the track info, genre etc automatically?
Regards

Yes there is no data packet available with the WAV format. As far as I know. It would have to be included in the title and a separate database.

Thank you for affirming. I hope you can help further. I will be using a CD/DVD drive of my PC when it gets fixed ( my PC & the Maxtor External Drive have both failed and my local PC shop is unable to retiieve any data!!-I am taking the Forum advice to have two this time £££££), do I need a cd drive that can read High res CDs such as SACD, DVD-A and HDCD? When these files are archieved, should I wish to play back, will I have all the audio information intact? It is opening up a can of worms for me as I know little about the software side of things.
I hope menbers can give me more advice.
regards

First, I don't believe there are SACD or DVD-A drives available for your PC, so that may be out the window. Second, if you want ideal transfers from LPs you don't want a compressed format, and unfortunately, only compressed formats (MP3, AAC, etc.) allow you to have data associated with your tracks. If you had a Mac you could convert files into Apple lossless (which does allow track info), but even that wouldn't matter as you cannot record directly to the Apple lossless format, because it's only available in iTunes which has no recording capability. In any event, Apple Lossless is no better than CD (16 bit/44 kHz) quality, and it seems you want better.

That leaves 96 bit/192kHz digital transfers, which are only playable on a computer (because consumer audio hardware can't read the data files) and have no track info. Your recording software choice would determine whether you can record with these settings, and software varies by price, technical capability and region of the world you live in. From what I know, this is by far the most accurate spec for recording digitally, probably better than your LP source recordings even provide.

I will mention finally that unless you have very high-end computer components, the quality of your sound conversions will be colored by your computer's noisy power circuits. This is why many people who want ultra-high quality digital audio buy outboard hardware such as Creative Labs Extigy external audio subsystems for PCs or M-Audio's MBox pro-audio preamplifiers.

I hope this gave you some ideas. Good luck!

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